What do we want? CAT VIDEOS! How do we get them? TOR!

Anonymity outfit responds to NSA targeting allegations

The Onion Router project has fired back at the National Security Agency, after it emerged that those who use the network – and read Linux magazines – are considered worthy of surveillance.

Tor's blogged riposte points out that “Just learning that somebody visited the Tor or Tails website doesn't tell you whether that person is a journalist source, someone concerned that her Internet Service Provider will learn about her health conditions, or just someone irked that cat videos are blocked in her location.”

Cat videos are blocked in some places? Now that sounds like the kind of thing the NSA should be fighting!

The post we've linked to comes from an author named “Phobos”, a handle generally assumed to be a pen name for Tor executive director Andrew Lewman.

Whatever the author's true identity, he or she is clearly quite upset by NSA's alleged activities.

“... it's worth emphasizing that we designed bridges for users in countries like China and Iran, and here we are finding out about attacks by our own country,” Phobos writes. “Now I understand how the Google engineers felt when they learned about the attacks on their infrastructure.” ®